Understanding Gender Equity (Part 2/3)

We
continue this week with our second piece on better understanding equity. If you
missed last week’s opening describing our relationship to equity and a number
of LGBT-focused organizations from which we learn, work with, and admire, be
sure to go back to read it.

As a women-owned company with a majority female team, Starfish Impact is particularly interested in meeting the needs of women and female-identifying individuals in our work. In the US social sector, nearly three quarters of all employees are women. Despite that, women fill less than 20% of the leadership roles. Beyond the social sector, we see equally disturbing statistics, from boardrooms to venture capital funding, failing to meet the needs of and fully incorporate women. To that end, we are happy to shine a light on the following organizations that work in the gender equity space for each of us to learn more about and to learn from.

Parity.org
exists to close the gender gap at the highest levels of business, where the
gender gap is most acute. They advocate for women’s representation in the
C-Suite and on the Board of Directors. Parity.org does this by promoting
companies that demonstrate their commitment to gender parity, raising awareness
about underlying issues, and providing facts and research that show the value
in equal representation. They ask companies to take the ParityPledge® to commit
to simply interview at least one qualified woman for every open role, VP and
higher—including the C-Suite and the Board.

Number
five of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals is to achieve gender
equality and to empower all women and girls. To that end, they believe that
gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary
foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world. The United Nations
serves as a center of shared goal setting, progress monitoring and evaluation,
and works in global partnership with all Member countries in achieving these
goals.

Gender
Justice is a nonprofit legal and policy advocacy organization devoted to
addressing the causes and consequences of gender inequality, both locally and
nationally through impact and strategic litigation, policy advocacy, and public
education and training.

Gender
at Work envisions a world that values and respects women’s human rights and
cultures of equality, especially gender equality. They understand that to
change systems of power that hold inequality in place, relationships between
people, institutions and organizations have to shift.

Our dynamic team has over 300 years of combined experience in both the non-profit and business sectors. The Starfish Impact approach creates a flexible team of experts that best suits the funding goals, operational targets, financial needs, and culture of the organization. Read more